Brussels Saint

A Pelle injury is my biggest concern. Can Long play in the central striker role? Also did not know that we can recall Boruc if an injury to Forster. Good news if true.

So has the Peach interview actually been reported yet, as all I've seen so far is the Solent one? Seems he's the slowest typer on the planet!

I think it likely Rodrigues will be off in Jan (when he refuses to sign a contract extension), so in which case paying 12m for a fairly similar style player is an insurance. I'm guessing the board realised they over paid, but would deem it worth it to get the replacement embedded in the squad already in the summer.

Exactly. MP was great for us and I reckon he'll be the best Spurs have had for a long time.

"The Dutch league had 10 players in the Dutch WC squad and they sure as hell played better than England, so real quality can come from this league." Did not realise this. Fair play, makes me more hopeful that Tadic & Pelle can perform in the PL

Excellent News. Gives a great indication that the club really is driving forward and wants our success to continue. I don't see Koeman choosing to come here if there was no ambition. For me it also seems a more definitive end of the Cortese era (of which I give great credit and enjoyed immensely) Now however, its a new chapter and this first real Football decision fills me with cautious optimism.

The best Saints team I have ever witnessed and a season of so much joy. I love supporting this club and whatever happens in the summer is a sidenote to my enjoyment of watching this team play.

If you cannot afford to watch your team play (as many can't), there must be a positive in that it would create a lower cost football and still give access to the club you support. I take the concern about the impact on lower league clubs and our pyramid system, but its not all bad and from what I read (briefly) was well researched with other leagues.

My guess is that most business will be done even later than normal this year. Players at the WC will want to wait until after the tournament to maximise their wage/value, whilst buying clubs will wait to be sure they are not buying a crock. Expect nothing until August.

Might also depend a bit on how we as a club rate Targett. If Shaw wants to go, I doubt there is much Saints ultimately can do to stop it. However even if Shaw is happy to spend a few more season here, but the club highly rate Targett, theres a chance we'll cash in on 30m surely?

Clear rubbish and almost all the players had an off day. Obvious MP was not that interested and ultimately the team paid the price for that. I'm genuinely gutted for the fans who travelled. The FA cup is not what it was for todays PL clubs. Things change, it's inevitable and only because of that, I'm not particularly annoyed at MP. He's just delivering in the world in which he's measured. Get behind the 7th place push FFS...............it's going to be special!!!!

Best comparison made that I heard of was to a young Stan Collymore. Can definitely see it in the rangy direct style.

Brussels is what you may call a hidden gem. Turn up as a tourist without any real plan/knowledge and it's utter carp (this is genuine and I understand why many don't like it). It's not an instant city like London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona etc However once you know it, it opens up and can be very cool. Depends what you are looking for and the days you go. Let me know and I'll see if I can suggest something ;-)

Interim until end of the season when club is sold to a Consortium headed by Cortese. Planned all along. Cortese had to leave to ensure club can be valued correctly, European accounting regulations met and bid process is transparent. Cortese ensured his manager remains in place with heavy suggestion "to see the job out until summer" Pure conjecture, but probably as valid as many others!

You'll never guess......... Joined the FB group btw, thanks for that. excellent to see the diversity of overseas Saints fans

Fully agree. My choice 100%

I still think he is what he is and essentially a 3rd choice keeper who may get better (jury obviously still out). However if he stays as our 3rd choice for the rest of his career, it's not a bad option to have. I doubt many other PL clubs 3rd choice is of particular quality, so I'm not sure what can be expected more from him. Our biggest problem is that we dont have a proper No. 2 to challenge Boruc and that does need to be rectified at some point.

Deserved point. Best game I've seen from Steven Davis, he was excellent. MP got the tactics wrong first half, but whats great is that he sees how to fix it. Jos had a good game after his mistake, but it does make you wonder why Fonte did not start. Gazza is a young 3rd choice keeper and to be honest showed it. This is not meant to be particularly critical of him as overall he did ok, but I would like to see us bring in someone else in Jan who can genuinely challenge Boruc

Back in the game! Just watched the Man City game on offside streams and its excellent. Plays on the iPad, AirPlay to TV. Will surely get closed down but for 5 quid per month its worth a go.

Its quite an interesting point you raise and I've also thought about this (even though I'm not directly impacted, living abroad) My take is that eventually the PL will realise it's becoming technically harder and harder to restrict such streaming and continuing to sell rights to broadcasters in the traditional sense. Their best option is to offer premium quality streaming at a cost to watch any match they choose (say 10 quid). Clubs will need to understand that maybe 90% of their matchday revenues will come through this source. If marketed effectively and technically delivered, the aim ios to match the revenues driven through the current rights deals Many fans will probably choose to do this and make 5-10 live games per season To maintain atmosphere/crowds and breakeven in the stadium, clubs will need to reduce ticket costs to 15-20 quid, returning the game to the working man. There's probably lots of challenges in setting this type of scenario up, but unless they address it, I can only see matchday attendance dropping

I'm biased, but his set piece delivery for me is the best I've seen since Beckham. Most impressive stat from the squawka link however was Clyne's heatmap. Our full back spends most of the game in the oppositions half, thats how high we press!

......I'm not joking Roy....... they gave me 200k..............200k!...... I painted the away end for 10k........ The other 190k me and Les have stuffed in our jackets to keep out the cold! After the game , I'm going to blow the lot on a Swan pie baked by Heston and eat it at Arsenal. World class away catering my arse....... my packed lunch will lead where others simply follow.

His goal was excellent, but where has Lallana's pace come from? The ground he covered to win the penalty was really telling. Class performance allround with a special mention to Clyne who would have been MoTM if not for a standout game from AL.

I actually thought Gaston played pretty well when he came on yesterday, lots of positive running with the ball, committing defenders and always showing to receive a pass. He was fouled a lot and that gave us opportunities to deliver some set pieces in dangerous areas and his chance was onside at the end, but denied by a class save. Think he got caught once in possession just after he came on but sharpened up after that. Game of opinions as as always, but think a few may be holding Ramirez to a different standard/expectation for some reason. Lallana was exceptional first half, but average the 2nd and MOTM was either Wanyama or JWP. Victor probably edging it as he consistently seems to be competing against 2 opposition midfielders and coming out on top........its like 11 v 12

I think it's partly cultural too. We good honest Britishers like our sport straight down the line and get very upset about this sort of behaviour. Take for example however South America where they see such actions as "clever" and all part of the game, no one is getting upset particularly about that. From Maradona, to today's Saurez and Neymar, being clever to achieve a win is celebrated. If as a youngster, you are taught and grow up with this view, my guess is its hard to change. We say its cheating, they say it's simply being creative, I personally dont judge, its interpretation. FIFA owns the game worldwide, so is unlikely to change anything too fundamental beyond the standard Fairplay requests, just to please the us.